The Numbers Are In: Support for Northern Pass Growing

Support for Northern Pass continues to grow! An independent issues survey released earlier this week finds the strongest support yet for the project, with 46 percent of New Hampshire residents supporting the project and just 35 percent opposing it. The results are in line with what we have been hearing through our outreach efforts in recent months, and offer further proof that – the more people learn about Northern Pass, the more likely they are to support it.

Reading into the data gives a clearer picture of what kind of energy future New Hampshire residents want and how they want to get there. For instance:

Only 28 percent of those polled favor burying the Northern Pass given the dramatically higher costs of underground technology, and only 19 percent are willing to pay for the increased costs through a ratepayer charge.

64 percent of residents polled support the idea that New Hampshire should diversify its energy portfolio by adding sources other than natural gas.

Just 31 percent of New Hampshire residents back a new natural gas pipeline and only 23 percent are willing to pay for the construction of a new pipeline.

These results will no doubt prompt policy makers to reconsider some of the popular misconceptions surrounding energy projects, and the actual concerns expressed by the public.

This chart, taken from the Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce 2014 Public Opinion Survey, shows growing support and declining opposition to Northern Pass. Source: Greater Nashua Chamber

And here is where Northern Pass is different. As proposed, Northern Pass is a “merchant” or “participant-funded” project. This means that, under the current plan, customers won’t pay for the construction of the line. The cost of building long-distance underground transmission lines (five to ten times higher than overhead construction) has the potential to make a participant-funded projects uneconomic. This is one of the reasons why just 0.5 percent of all transmission lines in the country are underground.

New Hampshire residents have spoken. They want to add new sources of clean, renewable energy to the grid, and in a cost-efficient manner. Northern Pass will not only connect our grid to a major source of hydropower, it can also plug New Hampshire into its energy future.